Articles Tagged With: The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

He’s Here: The Phantom of The Opera- A Quick Chat with Ron Legler about Phantom of The Opera’s 2025 National Tour Launching from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Interviews November 14, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

Fondest Greetings, Good Monsieurs…did you think that I had left you for good?

We’ve been waiting. Since Sunday April 16th 2023…when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera played its final performance at The Majestic Theatre on Broadway. After 35 years and 13,981 performances (marking it as the longest running musical in Broadway’ illustrious history), there was a darkness that overtook The Great White Way, though not without the promise of a return…and that return has finally arrived.

Nolan Almeida (left) as Peter Pan and Cody Garcia (center) as Captain Hook and Hawa Kamara (right) as Wendy and the cast of Peter Pan. ????Matthew Murphy

Peter Pan at The Hippodrome

Reviews February 22, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

econd star to the right and straight on til— viral video ballroom waltzing? Shut the fort door, since when does Peter Pan have Wendy being obsessed with going viral so that she can help pay for her medical school training because she wants to grow up and be a surgeon?

~*~*~*ANGRY TINKLING & CHIMING NOISES*~*~*~

What was that, Tinker Bell? In the newly refurbished national tour launch production that’s leaping into the air with lovely thoughts straight out of Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre?

Rob McClure as Euphegenia Doubtfire in Mrs. Doubtfire ???? Joan Marcus

Mrs. Doubtfire at The Hippodrome

Reviews January 31, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Wanted: Heart-warming, feel-good, fun-loving musical to fill the aching hole in the hearts of Baltimore after Sunday’s devastating upset at Raven’s stadium.

Helloooooo, Poppets!

Mrs. Doubtfire is exactly what this city needs to wake up, feel good, laugh and cry a little, and be made whole again! Coming in hot off the boards of Broadway, Rob McClure and the sensational singing, rapping, hip-hop-happening Scottish nanny is hear to take Charm City by hilarious and heartfelt storm.

Season of WOW: An Interview with Ron Legler talking about the 2024/2025 Broadway Hippodrome Season

Interviews January 27, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

The sun’ll come out— TOMORROW! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow— they’ll be— A Lion!?

Charm City is packing its Bromo-Seltzer Arts District with some of the hottest tickets in town for the 2024/2025 Hippodrome Broadway Series, powered by CareFirst. With not one but TWO National Tour launches, compliments of some hard-earned tax-credits now working in the state of Maryland (by way of Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland State Legislature), several shows direct from Broadway (or in some cases— still currently on Broadway) and a whole bunch of fun for everyone,

Moulin Rouge! at The Hippodrome

Reviews December 6, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Hello, Chickens!!! Are you ready to experience the epicenter of your passions? The apogee of your desires? Of course you are, you radiant reprobates and rascals!

Truth

Beauty

Freedom

Love

They’ve got it all in Montmartre— it’s all there to titillate the senses, tease the mind, sway the heartstrings— it’s all there inside The Moulin Rouge! And Moulin Rouge has landed itself grandly at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre for a limited two-week engagement just in time for the holiday season.

The Wiz "No Bad News" ???? Jeremy Daniel

The Wiz at The Hippodrome

Reviews September 27, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Everybody look around! Because there’s a reason to rejoice and shout— everybody come on down! You owe it to yourself to check it out! Can’t you feel a brand new day? That brand new day has come! Charm City has the hottest ticket in town with the Broadway-bound production of The Wiz. Directed by Schele Williams, with Musical Supervision & Orchestration by Joseph Joubert, and Choreography by Jaquel Knight, the book (by William F.

Caroline Bowman as Elsa in Frozen. ???? Deenvan Meer

Frozen at The Hippodrome

Reviews June 9, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle— but you’re going to have to LET IT GO. Because summer has arrived and with it blows the sparkly, dazzling, twinkly lights of Disney Broadway musical, blasting its way into Baltimore and ready to take Charm City by storm. We may not have seen any snow last winter, but fear now, with summer arriving— Frozen is here and ready to bring you all the snow you’ll ever need.

Nathan Lee Graham (center) and the company of the North American Tour of Hadestown ???? T Charles Erickson

Hadestown at The Hippodrome

Reviews April 12, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

A song so beautiful it brings the world back into tune.

But’s a sad song.

It’s an old song.

And it is finally, finally here at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre!

The train on that long road to hell has arrived, bringing you the epic, Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown. With music, book, & lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell, this stylistically mesmerizing and wondrously refreshing take on an ancient Greek myth will dazzle and amaze,

Melanie Moore (left) as Scout and Jacqueline Williams (right) as Calpurnia ????Julieta Cervantes

To Kill a Mockingbird at The Hippodrome

Reviews March 15, 2023 Mark Briner

Sixty years ago Harper Lee penned what has become perhaps the quintessential American coming of age novel, the enduring and beloved staple of middle school American Literature curriculums To Kill a Mockingbird, which became in turn one of the most enduring and beloved movies of all time starring Gregory Peck, winner of the Academy Award for his endearing, human portrayal of antihero Atticus Finch trying to make a difference in the morality of the deep South.

"One Day More" from Les Misérables ???? Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Les Miserables at The Hippodrome Theatre

Reviews February 8, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Do you hear the people sing? Do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes! And tomorrow has finally arrived once again in Baltimore as the critically acclaimed national tour of Les Miserables arrives in Charm City, gracing the stage of The Hippodrome Theatre in The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. The music is both iconic and memorable; the story is powerful and timeless. And this current national tour— a Cameron Mackintosh and NETWORKS presentation— is of the finest quality,

Season of Love & Laughter: A Talk with Ron Legler about the 23/24 Hippodrome Season

Interviews February 7, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

They are not throwing away their shot! After a spectacular come-back season, referred to by France-Merrick Performing Arts Center President Ron Legler as the “Season of Gratitude”— featuring such sensational shows as Hamilton, Jagged Little Pill, and Les Miserables— The Hippodrome Theatre has a whole new season lined up and it is spectacular! Including a Baltimore first— a pre-Broadway launch— as well as shows brand-new to the city,

Nadina Hassan (standing, center) as Regina George in Mean Girls. ????Jenny Anderson

Mean Girls at The Hippodrome

Reviews July 13, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Is butter a carb? Yes? Grool. I mean— that’s SO FETCH! (never stop trying to make FETCH happen!) And now you don’t have to! Now all you have to do is get your tickets to see Mean Girls on the national tour as it sweeps through Baltimore for a one-week engagement at The Hippodrome. Based on the iconic screen-gem with book by Tina Fey, Music by Jeff Richmond, and Lyrics by Nell Benjamin,

The National Touring Company of Ain't Too Proud. ????Emilio Madrid

Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations at The Hippodrome

Reviews May 4, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Music is the universal language that brings us all together. And you can feel the music rolling all through Charm City as The First National Tour of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations rolls on up to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre for a one-week stop. Featuring the music & lyrics of The Legendary Motown Catalog with book by Dominique Morisseau, this show goes above and beyond the battle-cry of your ‘standard jukebox musical.’ This is the true,

The Company of Pretty Woman: The Musical. ???? Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Pretty Woman at The Hippodrome

Reviews April 6, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Tell me what’s your dream! I know you got one— if your dream is to see a magnificent Broadway show right in your back yard, well guess what, Baltimore? The Hippodrome is making that dream come true! Touring through for a one-week limited engagement, Pretty Woman, the musical based on the Touchstone Pictures motion picture from 1990, is a joyful, powerful, wondrous dream come true with all the hallmarks of a perfect screen-to-stage production.

Season of Gratitude: A Chat With Ron Legler About the 2022/2023 Hippodrome Season

Interviews March 30, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Broadway is coming back to Baltimore! The France-Merrick Center for Performing Arts’ Hippodrome Theatre is once again alive with the sounds of music and laughter and live people! The 2022/2023 season is simply spectacular, to use the vernacular! In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we’ve had a phone conversation with President of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center Ron Legler all about the new season and what’s exciting him the most about the nine shows— five of which are currently still on Broadway— that will be passing through Charm City starting in November of 2022.

(L to R) Charis Gullage as “Disco Donna”, Brittny Smith as “Diva Donna”, and Amahri Edwards-Jones as “Duckling Donna” in SUMMER. Photo: N ick Gould.

Summer: The Donna Summer Musical at The Hippodrome

Reviews February 16, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

She’s your friend. She’s your lover. She’s your sister. She’s the Queen of Disco! She is Donna Summer. And though it’s still cold and snowy and unpleasant outside in Charm City— Summer has come to town! Summer: The Donna Summer Musical has landed at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre through February 20, 2022 and will have you tapping your toes, clapping along to the beat, and singing & dancing in the aisles by the end of the show.

Brittny Smith (center) as Diva Donna and the cast of Summer. Photo: Denise Trupe

Sizzlin’ Summer: Dynamic Diva Delivers Interview- Brittny Smith on playing ‘Diva Donna’

Interviews February 4, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

“To come back into live theatre, in the wake of this on-going pandemic, why not come to a party?” ~Brittny Smith on Summer: The Donna Summer Musical experience.

You’ve heard the songs. You know the name. Now go behind the scenes to see what it’s like to be Donna Summer. In a TheatreBloom exclusive, we’ve had the privilege to speak with Brittny Smith, playing ‘Diva Donna’ on the current national tour of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.

Tootsie at The Hippodrome

Reviews December 1, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

Look out world! This show’s on a roll! It’s unstoppable! Tootsie the musical is crashing its way into Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre in the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center this holiday season, just in time to give everyone a little something different this December. Based on the 80’s film of the same name (from Columbia Pictures, staring Dustin Hoffman), this Tootsie is something strange and something new; it’s a fast-paced, high-octane story of the real-life struggles of actors,

Jisel Soleil Ayon (center) as Jenna in Waitress. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

Waitress at The Hippodrome

Reviews November 7, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

What’s inside? Everyone wants to know! It’s musical theatre at its finest; simple things like sugar, butter, flour now on stage in the form of the critically-acclaimed, award-winning production of Waitress. With book by Jessie Nelson (based upon the motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly) and music & lyrics by Sara Bareilles, this ‘slice of life’ musical chronicles the story of Jenna, a small-town diner waitress in a miserable marriage with an unexpected surprise on the way.

Talia Suskauer as Elphaba. Photo: Joan Marcus

Wicked at The Hippodrome

Reviews February 14, 2020 Amanda N. Gunther

Magic is a demanderating mistress! And who better to know
that than the witches of Oz! Yes, for one short day— well, several short days
(through March 8, 2020)— you too can see the Emerald City, and hear the
splendor, and experience the glory that is the Tony Award-winning musical Wicked
as it defies gravity and lands once more in Baltimore! Green with envy yet?
You will be if you don’t get your tickets and they’re red hot like ruby
slippers!

The Hippodrome’s 2020/2021 Broadway Season: A Quick Chat With President Ron Legler

Interviews January 15, 2020 Amanda N. Gunther

Are you ready for Broadway in your own backyard? Baltimore’s
Hippodrome Theatre just announced their 2020/2021 season and they’re bringing
shows hot off Broadway right to the heart of Charm City! The season features
six shows making their Baltimore debut:

Tootsie (10/13/20 – 10/18/20)
Pretty Woman (12/8/20 – 12/13/20)
Mean Girls (01/19/21 – 01/24/21)
The Prom

Kaenaonālani Kekoa (left) as Jasmine and Jonah Ho'okano (right) as Aladdin. Photo: Deen van Meer

Aladdin at The Hippodrome

Reviews November 15, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Gotta keep— one jump, ahead of the box-office line! One
swing— ahead of the rest! Disney’s got a show that truly tops the rest! So make
way— for Disney’s Aladdin! Make way— for Disney’s Aladdin! Coasting
in on a magic carpet just in time for the holidays this highly adventurous, memorably
Disney stage show brings you a cave of wonders and them some when it comes to
theatrical spectacle.

The Phantom of the Opera at The Hippodrome

Reviews October 12, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation…darkness wakes
and stirs imagination…open up your mind…let your fantasies unwind…because it’s
here— The Phantom of the Opera! The much-awaited, long anticipated
return of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical masterpiece, wearing its new-age millennial
skin, The New Production of The Phantom of The Opera tells Broadway’s
most haunting love-adjacent story with much more smoke and whistles for the new
age of theatergoers. Directed by Laurence Connor with Choreography by Scott Ambler,

Where In The World Have You Been Hiding? An Interview with The Phantom of The Opera’s SarahGrace Mariani on Playing Meg Giry

Interviews September 10, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s here— The Phantom of the Opera! Well, almost! In
just a few short weeks, the newly imagined National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber
& Cameron Mackintosh’s critically acclaimed musical success will be landing
in Charm City for just two short weeks! The Phantom of The Opera comes
to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre from October 6, 2019 through October 20, 2019;
the spell-binding masterpiece still has tickets available for sale! TheatreBloom
has sat down with SarahGrace Mariani,

Rock of Ages at The Hippodrome

Reviews February 16, 2019 Mark Briner

Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom

First and foremost, there is
no freaking monkey. It is important to know right off the top that this
national tour of the 2009 Broadway smash hit, written by Chris D’Arienzo,
paying homage to the big hair bands of 80’s pop/rock radio is nothing like
the horrendous, bloated travesty of a movie by Adam Shankman that was more
offensive than his previous ruination of cult classic Hairspray.

A-one two three four five- we take the ROCKIN’ ROAD TO DUBLIN with Co-Creator

Interviews April 24, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

You take the high road and we’ll take the ROCK ROAD!! And we’ll be standing at the world’s first hybrid crossroads of Irish Dance and Rock-N-Roll! Join us in a TheatreBloom exclusive interview as we chat with Co-Creator Scott Doherty about Rockin’ Road to Dublin before it swoops into Baltimore for its one-night engagement at The Hippodrome Theatre.

Thanks so much for giving us a few seconds of your time, just looking at the show’s tour schedule,

Champions of Magic at The Hippodrome Theatre

Reviews February 16, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

All magic shows are pretty much the same; or so I thought. Last night I was kept on the edge of my seat by brilliant lighting effects, stadium rocking music, comedy, thrilling acts and even a little Strange. Sam Strange that is.

Right from the start Fernando Velasco – Visual Magic Expert, had us asking, “how did he do that?” with his ability to make doves appear and disappear in thin air.

Wondrous Strange: An Interview with Champions of Magic Performer Sam Strange

Interviews January 10, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Abracadabra! Alakazam! With a wave of a wind and a flick of the hand you’ve got— MAGIC. And not just any magic but Champions of Magic coming live to The Hippodrome Theatre this February! In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we took a quick across-the-pond call with illusionist and magician Sam Strange— of Young & Strange, one of the featured magic acts appearing with Champions of Magic— to chat about the craft and what has him so fascinated with magic and illusion enough to want to perform it world-wide.

Cast of the Something Rotten! National Tour.

Something Rotten! at The Hippodrome

Reviews April 19, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Something Rotten! in the state of Maryland! It’s not politics! It’s not corruption! It’s a bloody, bleeding musical! What the hell’s a musical? Well, it appears to be a play where the dialogue stops and the plot is conveyed through song! Charm City be praised! This brand new thing— this “musical”— is coming directly to Baltimore’s France-Merrick Performing Arts Center and settling down at The Hippodrome Theatre. Why, direct from its smashing success on The Great White Way,

FIRST ROW OF ORCHESTRA SEATS FOR THE “RENT” 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR AVAILABLE FOR $25 DAY OF PERFORMANCE ONLY AT THE HIPPODROME THEATRE BOX OFFICE

News March 23, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

The Hippodrome Theatre today announced that seats in the first row of the orchestra section will be available for $25 for every performance of RENT, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical. The $25 tickets are available for in-person purchases at the Hippodrome Theatre Box Office located at 12 North Eutaw Street, on the day of each performance only, two hours prior to the show. The $25 tickets are available for cash only purchases and are limited to two tickets per person.